Top 3 Employer Branding Trends for 2018

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Sushman serves up bleeding-edge ways for organizations to harness HR technology to drive growth at HR Technologist. In charge of the editorial content at HRT, Sushman comes from a B2B content marketing background where he worked closely with global thought leaders across industries including Finance, Marketing, Human Resources and Cyber Security. When not writing, Sushman loves his motorcycling holidays.

You can get in touch with him for editorial inquiries, guest author submissions and awesome road trip ideas at sushman.biswas@hrtechnologist.com

As organizations seek to transform their talent into a competitive advantage, employee branding is no longer optional. Organizations make an impression on potential candidates by design or by default. We explore three key trends in employer branding for 2018 and how organizations can deploy them to land top talent.

It’s 2018, and employer branding is no longer just an HR initiative anymore, it’s a business initiative. As studies have shown, employer branding not only helps organizations tap into a rich talent pool, it also has a strong impact on key business metrics like turnover rates, cost per hire and employee engagement.

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As the talent landscape increasingly leans in favor of candidates, organizations must rethink their employer branding strategies to remain relevant today. Read on to learn more about the top three trends in employer branding for 2018, and how you can deploy them as a part of your business strategy:

Employer branding goes mobile: Employer branding is about meeting candidates where they are and creating content the way they consume it. Americans alone make over one-billion job searches each month from their mobile devices. So, if you haven’t started optimizing for mobile use, chances are you’re missing out on a large chunk of qualified candidates. You don’t need to shell out a ton of money on smartphone apps, you can start small by optimizing your careers site or company website for mobile. As search engines like Google move to mobile-first indexing, candidates are more likely to engage with companies that have mobile-optimized websites.

Personalization: The digital transformation of the HR function has made it even more challenging for employers to stand out from the crowd. Take career sites, for example, most career sites have the same look and feel. At a time when 9 out of 10 candidates use career sites as primary sources of information, making them relevant and user-friendly is crucial to delivering a memorable candidate experience. The content on your site should be targeted to your candidate demographic. Employee storytelling, articles, and job recommendations are a great way to personalize your website at scale.

Omni-channel campaigns: Omni-channel campaigns are key to powering your employer branding success. Candidates engage with prospective employers in a variety of ways – through websites, career sites, online job boards, social media, and events. Embracing an omnichannel strategy can not only help you optimize for multiple recruiting channels but also create a seamless candidate journey. What’s more, omnichannel messaging is also one of the most effective methods for growing brand awareness and organic sourcing. When your employer brand is consistently presented across multiple channels, you eliminate candidate confusion – moving candidates faster through the talent pipeline.

As Josh Bersin said, “The war for talent is over, and the talent has won.”

Candidate-centricity is the concept that underpins each of the top three employer branding trends in 2018. Everything is about talent and for talent, right now. By focusing your employer branding efforts on optimizing the candidate experience, your talent acquisition function will run more efficiently and will have a tangible positive impact on the business.